After we reported yesterday about the danger of the PlusToken Scam in connection with Ethereum, the last Bitcoin have now been moved. Reminder: PlusToken managed to steal more than $ 3 billion in customer funds from one of the largest and 'most successful' scams in history. In the past, selling the stolen BTC has been negative for the Bitcoin rate.
In this article, we want to look at how much the other Bitcoin could influence the price and what the actual danger is.
The stolen BTC on the way to the stock exchanges
Just yesterday we wrote about a report from WhaleAlert . This showed that PlusToken set Ethereum in motion worth around $ 190 million. The analysis company OXT Research then published another tweet yesterday. In turn, the company wrote that PlusToken is now moving almost all of the remaining 22,000 BTC towards mixer services.
The value of the remaining Bitcoin even exceeds the sum of Ethereum that we reported on yesterday. There were still 22,000 BTC worth around USD 202 million on the wallets of the PlusToken Scam.
In order not to have any problems with the AML checks of the respective exchanges, the fraudsters rely on mixer services. At the same time, an over-the-counter (OTC) sale often takes place.
Furthermore, the analysis company OXT stated that - after a short break in March and April - the scammers around PlusToken are now actively working on selling their crypto currencies again. It says specifically:
From mid-March there was a pause in the sale of the stolen cryptocurrencies until mid-May. Since mid-May, the inflow of bitcoin, which are transferred to exchanges daily, has been around 300-500BTC.
Bitcoin exchange rate: effects through sell-off?
The actual impact on the Bitcoin price continues to be discussed. The prevailing opinion here is that the impact of the scam on the BTC price decreases over time. Logically, the actual market power of PlusToken was still relatively high at the beginning, because they owned a huge amount of Bitcoin.
Over time and the corresponding sales, their absolute number of BTC and thus the potential impact on the Bitcoin price also logically reduced. The analysis by Travis Kling, on the other hand, believes that PlusToken has had an impact on the course that should not be underestimated since 2019.
Even if this statement has an absolute foundation, one should not overestimate the influence of PlusToken. The last few months have shown that the Bitcoin price is dominated by macroeconomic factors (keyword: Covid-19 or S & P500 performance). In this respect (especially in the medium to long term) one should not overestimate the risk from PlusToken.
